(NewsOne)–As the nation mourns the death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, the Chicago teen who just performed with the King College Prep High School drill team at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, the White House issued a statement expressing condolences, reports the Los Angeles Times.

“The president and first lady’s thoughts and prayers are with the family of Hadiya Pendleton,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday.

In response to inquiries about the official petition that has begun circulating, urging the president to return to Chicago to honor the brief life of the girl who performed for him just 10 days ago, Carney said that he had no knowledge of the petition nor of any scheduling changes.

As Newtown swirls down the memory hole and passion to implement safe gun control gets sidetracked by whatever the latest Congressional bulls**t circus will be, President Obama should stand up and take advantage of a tragic opportunity to keep the anti-gun violence movement engaged.

Sixteen-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, a sophomore at the selective enrollment King College Prep, a young woman who performed in the King Band at Obama’s Second Inauguration, was shot to death Tuesday afternoon in a South Side Chicago park.

From the National Mall in the District of Columbia to Harsh Park in the 4400 block of South Oakenwald Avenue. From the inauguration to the mortuary. In eight days…

Surely, if the president has time to respond to frivolous petitions ranging from Star Wars to Secessionists, he will make time for this.

When asked about Hadiya’s murder in an interview with Telemundo, the POTUS said “the problem is that a huge proportion of those guns come in from outside Chicago.”

Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel said that Hadiya’s senseless death is a loss for the city:

“She had dreams,” Emanuel said. “And these – this gang-banger, this punk – took that away from [her mother] Cleopatra, they took it away from Hadiya and, in my view, they took it away from the city of Chicago.”